All in all, the trial and sentencing of former Proud Boys leader Henry “Enrique” Tarrio feels just about right after getting the longest sentence to date for January 6th.
Tarrio, 39, was convicted of seditious conspiracy and obstructing the congressional proceeding meant to confirm the 2020 presidential election as part of a riot that U.S. District Judge Timothy J. Kelly said last week broke America’s long democratic tradition of peaceful transfers of power. Tarrio was the last of five Proud Boys to be sentenced after all were convicted in May following a 15-week trial.
Tarrio, of Miami, was arrested and convicted even though he wasn’t in D.C. on Jan. 6. He had been arrested in December 2020 after he burned a “Black Lives Matter” flag torn down from a D.C. church during a protest in the city following President Donald Trump’s defeat. He was banned from the city as a result.
But prosecutors said he recruited people to join in a violent assault on the Capitol on Jan. 6 to keep Trump in power and messaged them “Don’t f—ing leave” as they led the storming of the building, causing the electoral vote count to stop for about six hours.
Kelly cited that message Tuesday in ruling that Tarrio still had a leadership role on Jan. 6, even if he wasn’t in D.C. Tarrio denied planning an incursion into the Capitol and gave interviews after the riot saying he did not endorse that move by multiple Proud Boys, some of whom were among the first to enter the building.
Prosecutors asked for a 33-year sentence for Tarrio, one of the most high-profile defendants who have gone to trial in the Capitol attack. But they also asked for 20 years or more for each of Tarrio’s four co-defendants, and Kelly declined to impose such terms.
The judge agreed that the convictions qualified as terrorism under federal law and increased the federal sentencing guidelines for Tarrio, Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl and Dominic Pezzola. But he then declined to sentence each defendant within the advisory sentencing ranges, saying repeatedly that “the terrorism adjustment overstates your role in the offense.”
In the case of Nordean, who was an on-the-ground leader of the Proud Boys in Tarrio’s absence, Kelly imposed an 18-year term. That was equal to the longest sentence given to any Jan. 6 defendant so far, handed down to Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes.
Now we get to see if FAFO applies to the top of the food chain.Report